Category: Covid-19

NEW YORK (AP) Americans who test positive for COVID-19 no longer need to stay in isolation for five days, U.S. health officials announced Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its longstanding guidance, saying that people can return to work or regular activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and its been a day since theyve had a fever.

The change comes at a time when COVID-19 is no longer the public health menace it once was. It dropped from being the nations third leading cause of death early in the pandemic to 10th last year.

Most people have some degree of immunity to the coronavirus from past vaccinations or from infections. And many people are not following the five-day isolation guidance anyway, some experts say.

Our goal here is to continue to protect those at risk for severe illness while also reassuring folks that these recommendation are simple, clear, easy to understand, and can be followed, said Dr. Mandy Cohen, the CDCs director

However, some experts worry that the change may increase the risk of infection for those people who are more vulnerable to developing severe illness.

WHY ARE THE GUIDELINES CHANGING?

COVID-19 is not causing as many hospitalizations and deaths as it did in the first years of the pandemic. The change is an effort to streamline recommendations so they are similar to longstanding recommendations for flu and other respiratory viruses. Many people with a runny nose, cough or other symptoms arent testing to distinguish whether its COVID-19, flu, or something else, officials say.

This may not be as stringent, but also emphasizes that all people with respiratory symptoms should stay home while they are sick, said Dr. David Margolius, the head of Clevelands health department.

Theres been no recent change in the science of how long people with COVID-19 are likely contagious, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown Universitys School of Public Health.

What has changed is how much COVID is harming us as a population, Nuzzo said.

WHAT ARE THE NEW GUIDELINES?

If you have symptoms, stay home until your symptoms are mild and improving and its been a day since youve had a fever. But then you can remain cautious by wearing a mask and keeping a distance from others.

There is no change to guidelines for nursing homes and health care facilities, however.

The agency is emphasizing that people should still try to prevent infections in the first place, by getting vaccinated, washing their hands, and taking steps to bring in more outdoor fresh air.

IS THERE OPPOSITION TO THIS CHANGE?

Yes, and even some who understand the rationale for the change have concerns.

My biggest worry in all of this is that employers will take this change in guidance to require employees to come back to work before they are ready to, before they feel well enough, and before they are not likely to pose harm to their co-workers, Nuzzo said.

IS THIS THE FIRST CHANGE FOR COVID-19 ISOLATION GUIDELINES?

No. The CDC originally advised 10 days of isolation, but in late 2021 cut it to five days for Americans who catch the coronavirus and have no symptoms or only brief illnesses. Under that guidance, isolation only ends if a person has been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and if other symptoms are resolving.

At the time, agency officials said the changes were in keeping with evidence that people with the coronavirus were most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop.

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U.S. health officials announce major change to COVID-19 guidance - East Idaho News

The origin of the coronavirus pandemic has been a divisive topic ever since the first cases emerged in Wuhan at the end of 2019. Vicious arguments erupted between warring factions of scientists, often closing off constructive debate.

Conversation about the possibility of a lab leak was largely shut down in the midst of lockdown after a group of scientists wrote in the Lancet that they strongly condemned conspiracy theories.

Ongoing investigations, including from a US Congressional Inquiry, have found cause for concern around the biosecurity of the WIV, which was known to be storing and working on coronaviruses before the pandemic.

Prof James Wood, head of the department of veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge, said although the survey sample size was small it usefully distinguished between the two lab-leak scenarios.

There has been a lot of confusion or conflation between the lab-leak hypothesis and whether this was an artificially constructed virus. This survey pulls these separate questions apart, he said.

Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, added: It always seemed entirely plausible to me that Covid escaped from a laboratory, but that doesnt mean that it was deliberate or the result of nefarious activity.

Labs like the one in Wuhan routinely collect and store samples of the pathogens they are studying, so Covid could have been collected from a wild animal, taken to the lab for study, but accidentally released because of a lapse in biosecurity.

However, Professor Ravindra Gupta, an expert in clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said the prevailing belief is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged naturally.

The lay of the land among scientists is people saying it is most likely of natural origin through the market; there were a lot of animals there and there was evidence of the SARS virus, so most likely that is what happened.

But we cannot ignore that laboratory work was going on at unsafe containment levels in Wuhan. It is possible it leaked from a Chinese lab and it should be taken seriously.

Scientists also slammed China for its role in the pandemic, with two thirds agreeing that China has not been open and transparent about the origins of Covid-19.

Prof Wood said the slow release of information from China has likely increased uncertainty over Covids origins.

Coupled with the fact that retrospective investigations of outbreaks can often fail to identify specific epidemic sources, even when there is complete official openness, it is not clear that further investigations now will ever be able to identify a source, he added.

Prof Clarke agreed, saying: Weve probably missed the opportunity to investigate whether thats what actually happened.

Prof Lawrence Gostin, distinguished university professor at Georgetown University in the US, and director of the ONeill Institute, a WHO-collaborating centre on global health law, said China had behaved badly throughout the pandemic.

It has not been a good global citizen and may be partially responsible for the failure of an early response to help contain the virus, Prof Gostin said.

China was late in reporting the outbreak to WHO, conveyed misleading information to the WHO suggesting there was limited human-to-human transmission, and blocked any attempt at an independent scientific investigation of Covid origins.

Because of China, the world may never know the full truth. After all the world has suffered from Covid-19, Chinas actions have been reprehensible.

Scientists were also quizzed on the usefulness and risks of gain-of-function lab experiments, which take a virus and give it enhanced abilities, sometimes relating to mortality and transmissibility.

One third of those questioned (34 per cent) thought these experiments were needed to prevent future pandemics, but the same proportion said they risk sparking future pandemics.

They are only justifiable if they have important and immediate public health benefits, Prof Gupta said, adding they need to be very tightly regulated.

I think the survey shows that people believe in the ability of science to answer questions, but some of those experiments carry a risk.

Prof Gupta, who is also co-chairman of the Independent Task Force on Research with Pandemic Risks, recently presented a report to the UN, which stated Covid could have been caused by a research-related incident.

This survey is an independent validation of what we have just put out, he told The Telegraph.

Scientists are saying, in an anonymous fashion, that they agree with what the reports findings are. There are risks associated with doing this work, but also this sort of work is essential to be able to save lives in the future.

However, Richard Ebright, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Americas Rutgers University, disagrees, and thinks gain-of-function research has zero civilian applications.

He said: It provides no information useful for preventing pandemics and no information useful for responding to pandemics. It is not required for, and does not contribute to, the development of any vaccine or therapeutic agent.

Virologists at the WIV have previously dismissed claims of a lab leak.

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Majority of scientists think Beijing not open about Covid's origins - The Telegraph

This edition of The Checkup With Dr. Wen was sent on Thursday, before the CDC updated its isolation guidance for covid. This online version has been updated. Click here to get the full newsletter in your inbox.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that it will relax its five-day isolation guidance for people with covid-19. The new policy says people can end their isolation 24 hours after theyre fever-free, though it urged these people to continue wearing masks in public for five days.

The change, which has been expected for weeks, is likely to make many people nervous. For these folks, I recommend taking a look at California, where a similar policy has already been in place since January. Health officials there make a strong case for why this change is necessary.

To understand how health officials came to this decision, I spoke with Erica Pan, Californias state epidemiologist.

Pan, who is also a pediatric infectious-disease specialist, emphasized that the coronavirus continues to cause severe disease among vulnerable individuals. But the viruss population-level impact is far below its pandemic peak because of immunity from vaccination and previous infections, as well as effective antiviral treatments.

If you look at this season compared to last season and prior seasons, our hospitalizations and deaths are much lower, Pan said. Top-down requirements such as mask mandates and mandatory isolation were needed when population immunity was low and the virus was straining health-care systems. But now, she explained, we are really recognizing the disruptive impact of some of these policies, specifically in schools and workplaces.

Another key factor in Californias decision-making was the fact that coronavirus infections can be mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic, and many people are no longer testing every time they have a runny nose. We really wanted to remind people that there are multiple respiratory viruses circulating, she said. This is why they switched to a symptom-based approach: People should stay home if they have a fever and respiratory symptoms, no matter what virus they have.

Pan points to other countries that have made similar changes. Denmark no longer considers covid to have special status over other illnesses and does not require isolation after a positive test. Norway and Britain advise people to stay home if ill, but there is no set isolation period; in fact, these countries recommend testing only for symptomatic people who qualify for treatment. Even Australia, which had some of the strictest mitigation measures during the pandemic, ended mandatory isolation more than a year ago in favor of asking symptomatic people to mask and avoid settings with high-risk individuals.

I also learned that California had practical reasons for not waiting on the CDC to change its guidelines. In many states, public health recommendations are just that suggestions that workplaces and individuals can choose to follow or not. But in California, public health policy is tied to workplace regulations. This is also true for Oregon, where health officials likewise overrode the CDCs five-day isolation period.

Opponents of the guidance change often invoke equity, because people at risk of severe illness would suffer the most if virus transmission increased. (I have written about how the CDC can mitigate this risk.) But there is an equity argument in favor of relaxing isolation requirements, too.

As Pan explains, isolation requirements favor people who have desk jobs and can keep working from home without losing wages. This is not the case for those who must work in person, a disproportionate proportion of whom are minorities and workers who make less money. Well-meaning public guidance should not impose additional burdens on essential workers and exacerbate economic hardships.

In no way does the change in isolation policy mean that state health officials are minimizing covid, as some advocates have suggested. Pan emphasized the many efforts her team is making to encourage people to remain up to date with the vaccines, improve ventilation and increase access to treatment. She agrees with me that people should tailor the tools available to them based on their individual risks and the risks of those around them.

For instance, before going to dinner with her elderly parents, she will test herself and her kids. And vulnerable people such as her parents should use well-fitting N95 or equivalent masks in public settings.

At the end of the day, its all about balancing priorities, Pan said. Policymakers and the public must recognize that the interventions that were appropriate earlier in the pandemic might no longer be. The emphasis has shifted from preventing infection to reducing severe outcomes while lessening disruptions to work, school and social activities.

The balance is difficult to get right, and there will always be naysayers. But as Pan and her colleagues illustrated well through their thoughtful decision-making, this is the work of public health. The governments guidance must always be guided by science, but there is rarely a straight line from science to policy. Health officials must do better to communicate complexity and the challenge of determining which priorities take precedence and why.

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Opinion | California's case for relaxing covid isolation guidance - The Washington Post - The Washington Post

Infectious diseases

Change in guidelines comes as Covid dropped from third leading cause of death at start of pandemic to 10th last year

Associated Press

Americans who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to stay in isolation for five days, US health officials announced on Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its longstanding guidance, saying that people can return to work or regular activities if their symptoms are mild and improving and it has been a day since they have had a fever.

The change comes at a time when Covid-19 is no longer the public health menace it once was. It dropped from being the nations third leading cause of death early in the pandemic to 10th last year.

Most people have some degree of immunity to the coronavirus from past vaccinations or from infections. And many people are not following the five-day isolation guidance anyway, some experts say.

Our goal here is to continue to protect those at risk for severe illness while also reassuring folks that these recommendations are simple, clear, easy to understand, and can be followed, said Dr Mandy Cohen, the CDCs director.

However, some experts worry that the change may increase the risk of infection for those people who are more vulnerable to developing severe illness.

Covid-19 is not causing as many hospitalizations and deaths as it did in the first years of the pandemic. The change is an effort to streamline recommendations so they are similar to longstanding recommendations for flu and other respiratory viruses. Many people with a runny nose, cough or other symptoms are not testing to distinguish whether it is Covid-19, flu or something else, officials say.

This guidance may not be as stringent as it once was, but it also emphasizes that all people with respiratory symptoms should stay home while they are sick, said Dr David Margolius, the head of Clevelands health department.

There has been no recent change in the science of how long people with Covid-19 are likely to be contagious, said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown Universitys School of Public Health.

What has changed is how much Covid is harming us as a population, Nuzzo said.

The advice is now for people with symptoms to stay home until they are mild and improving and it has been a day since having had a fever.

There is no change to guidelines for nursing homes and healthcare facilities, however.

The agency is emphasizing that people should still try to prevent infections in the first place, by getting vaccinated, washing their hands and taking steps to bring in more fresh outdoor air.

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US health officials say people with Covid now need not isolate for five days - The Guardian

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Excerpt from:

Analyzing the Outcomes of COVID-19 Infection on Patients With Comorbidities: Insights From Hospital-Based Study - Cureus

Americans who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to routinely stay home from work and school for five days under new guidance released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency is loosening its covid isolation recommendations for the first time since 2021 to reflect the changing landscape of covid-19 four years after the virus emerged. The CDC laid out its justification for the guidance change in a 25-page document that describes the evolving risk environment. Although coronavirus infections are continuing at levels similar to those in years past, new infections are now causing less severe illness and far fewer hospitalizations or deaths, CDC data shows.

The change, as reported by The Washington Post last month, is effective immediately, CDC officials said. The agency said it is streamlining its guidance for respiratory viral illnesses, and the new recommendations bring covid-19 in line with how other common viruses, such as influenza and RSV, are managed.

Our goal here is to protect those at risk for severe illness while also reassuring folks that these recommendations are simple, clear, easy to understand and can be followed, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said during a media briefing Friday. The change, she added, reflects the progress weve made in protecting against severe illness from covid.

The basic advice is the same: Stay home and away from others when youre sick. Under the new approach, people who test positive for the coronavirus no longer need to isolate at home if they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the aid of medication and their overall symptoms are improving.

Once people resume normal activities, the updated guidance encourages them to take additional preventive steps for the next five days to curb disease spread. These include improving ventilation by opening windows to bring in fresh outside air or purifying indoor air, washing hands often and cleaning frequently touched surfaces, wearing a well-fitting mask, keeping a distance from others, and continuing to test ahead of any gatherings, CDC officials said.

Testing as soon as you have symptoms can help you take precautions early, and if you test positive, seeking treatment, avoiding contact with people at a higher risk of getting seriously ill, namely those 65 and older, and masking for five days after you feel better will all help reduce transmission and will protect others from covid-19, said Ashwin Vasan, the top public health official for New York City, which plans to update its isolation guidance to align with the CDCs.

Not all respiratory infections result in fever, so paying attention to other symptoms, such as cough and muscle aches, is important as someone determines when they are well enough to leave home, according to the CDC.

Giving people symptom-based guidance is a better way to prioritize those most at risk and balance the potential for disruptive impacts on schools and workplaces, health officials and experts have said. The federal recommendations follow similar moves by Oregon and California. California shortened its five-day isolation recommendation in January; Oregon made a similar move last May.

Other countries have implemented similar guidance, including Britain, Australia, France and Canada, and found no significant change in spread or severe disease, according to a CDC blog post on the respiratory guidance.

Many experts have said that the changes are long overdue and that public health guidance needs to shift to a more practical approach. The covid-19 reality is far different now than early in the pandemic, when the population had no protection against a novel pathogen. By the end of last year, 98 percent of people in the United States had disease-fighting antibodies from vaccination, prior infection or both, which confers the strongest immunity.

There are still about 20,000 people a week hospitalized for covid-19 and about 2,000 deaths a week caused by the disease, according to the CDC.

The updated recommendations are for the general population and community settings; there are no changes to respiratory virus guidance for health-care settings, such as hospitals, with more vulnerable populations. The respiratory virus guidance covers most common respiratory viral illnesses but does not replace specific guidance for pathogens such as measles, an extremely contagious disease that requires much stricter isolation and quarantine measures.

The CDC is also developing new infection prevention and control guidance for schools on a number of pathogens, including norovirus and flu. The agency will align that effort with the updated respiratory virus guidance released Friday and will include considerations for children with special health-care needs, according to an agency FAQ posted Friday. The CDC said it plans to release the new school infection guidance before the 2024-2025 school year.

Advocates for people with disabilities and others who face higher risk of severe covid condemned the CDCs shift, which they say endangers them by abandoning attempts to control transmission.

Our community has been really left behind and disposable for the past four years, and this is yet another reminder of that, said Maria Town, president of the American Association of People with Disabilities. Grouping all three of these viruses together fails to recognize how much more contagious covid is, how it behaves differently and puts many people, especially disabled people and immunocompromised people, at risk.

CDC officials said protecting vulnerable people was a top priority while revising the guidance, and they believe that the new approach will help if it means more people stay home while sick with any virus instead of depending on coronavirus tests.

Work on revising the isolation guidance has been underway since August but was paused in the fall as covid cases rose. Agency officials have said they recognized the need to give the public more practical guidelines for covid-19, acknowledging that few people are following isolation guidance that hasnt been updated since December 2021. Different guidance for different viruses also makes it difficult to know what to do when someone doesnt know what is causing their symptoms, officials said.

While every respiratory virus does not act the same, having a common approach to limiting disease spread makes recommendations easier to follow and more likely to be adopted and does not rely on people to test for illness, CDC officials said. Estimates suggest that only about 50 percent of individuals are testing for covid-19, said Demetre Daskalakis, who heads the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

David Margolius, Clevelands top public health official, applauded the updated guidance, adding that hospitalizations from RSV and influenza have exceeded those from covid-19 in his community.

Simplifying the public health messaging to treat all of these dangerous contagious respiratory viruses the same makes a lot of sense, Margolius said. We really want the takeaway to be: When youre sick, stay home until you feel better.

He said hed continue to urge employers to not force sick employees to come into work. Revised guidance emphasizing being fever-free could help, he said, because some employers have made sick employees come to work if they tested negative for covid. As a result, people with other contagious viruses or who received false negatives would still expose others in the workplace, Margolius said.

Many businesses have already stopped offering workers with covid infections five paid days to isolate, and they celebrated state officials who moved away from the CDC guidance, arguing that it was overly burdensome to keep workers with mild or no symptoms off the job for so long.

Cohen acknowledged that organizations need to consider policies that would allow employees to stay home when sick, such as working from home or paid sick leave. She said federal health officials expect that there will be updated vaccines for flu and covid-19 this fall. As part of a common approach to respiratory viruses, wed like to see employers hold flu and covid clinics, she said.

Nearly 1.2 million people have died of covid-19 as of Feb. 10. The virus was the third leading cause of death in 2021, accounting for 12 percent of all deaths. In 2022, it was the fourth leading cause of death, after heart disease, cancer and unintentional injury. Preliminary data from 2023 shows covid-19 as the 10th leading cause of death, according to the CDC.

CDC officials also said more people need to get vaccinated with the latest version of the vaccine, made available last fall. Uptake of the updated vaccine among adults has been low only about 22 percent of those 18 and older have received a dose. And only about 42 percent of those 65 and older have gotten one. Among those hospitalized with covid-19 this past season, Cohen said, more than 95 percent had not received an updated coronavirus vaccine.

Most covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations last year were among people 65 years and older. The CDC this week recommended an additional vaccine dose for older adults because it can provide added protection to immunity that may have waned over time.

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CDC officially drops five-day covid isolation guidelines - The Washington Post

(BIVN) The Hawaii Department of Health on Friday said it is in general agreement with the latest COVID-19 guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the latest recommendations from the CDC drops the 5 day isolation period for individual COVID-19 cases. Those who may have a respiratory virus can go back to normal activities if symptoms are getting better overall, and there has been no fever, for at least 24 hours.

According to the Hawaii DOH:

The new guidelines reflect the current level of risk, while still protecting the most vulnerable. The advisement eases some restrictions and more closely aligns COVID-19 with the broader category of respiratory viruses, which include influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).

The trend in Hawaii is similar to that nationally, in which significant declines in COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality have been associated with the high degree of population immunity, availability of vaccinations, and access to treatment. As the threat from COVID-19 more closely resembles other common respiratory viruses, CDC is issuing Respiratory Virus Guidance, rather than additional virus-specific guidance. The new pan-respiratory guidance makes it easier for people to take actions to prevent disease spread, even if they are unable to identify the specific respiratory disease.

DOH will be reviewing CDCs guidance over the coming week as the department prepares updates to state-level guidance to align with these changes.

To read more about the CDCs changes, visit Protect yourself from COVID-19, Flu, and RSV. CDC offers separate, specific guidance which has not changed for health care settings (COVID-19, flu, and general infection prevention and control).

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Hawaii Health Officials Support New CDC Guidelines On COVID-19 - Big Island Video News

BOSTON (AP) Four years after the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools and upended child care, the CDC says parents can start treating the virus like other respiratory illnesses.

Gone are mandated isolation periods and masking. But will schools and child care centers agree?

In case you've lost track: Before Friday, all Americans, including school children, were supposed to stay home for at least five days if they had COVID-19 and then mask for a set period of time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Now, with COVID deaths and hospitalizations dropping, the CDC says children can go back to school when their overall symptoms improve and they're fever-free for 24 hours without taking medication. Students are "encouraged" to wear a mask when they return.

Still, the change may not affect how individual schools urge parents to react when their children fall sick. Schools and child care providers have a mixed record on following CDC recommendations and often look to local authorities for the ultimate word. And sometimes other goals, such as reducing absences, can influence a state or district's decisions.

The result can be a confusing array of policies among states and districts, not to mention workplaces confounding parents whose lives have long been upended by the virus.

"This is so confusing," said Gloria Cunningham, a single mom in the Boston area. "I just don't know what I should think of COVID now. Is it still a monster?"

Cunningham, who manages a local store for a national restaurant chain, said her company requires her to take off 10 days if she gets COVID-19. And the school system where her son is in second grade has still been sending home COVID test kits for kids to use before returning to school after long breaks.

"I feel like we should just do away with anything that treats COVID differently or keep all of the precautions," she said.

The public education system has long held varying policies on COVID. During the 2021-2022 school year, only 18 states followed CDC recommendations for mask-wearing in class. When the CDC lifted its masking guidelines in February of 2022, states like Massachusetts followed suit, but California kept the mask requirement for schools.

And in the child care world, some providers have long used more stringent testing and isolation protocols than the CDC has recommended. Reasons have ranged from trying to prevent outbreaks to keeping staff healthy both for their personal safety and to keep the day care open.

Some states moved to more lenient guidelines ahead of the CDC. California and Oregon recently rescinded COVID-19 isolation requirements, and many districts followed their advice.

In an attempt to minimize school absences and address an epidemic of chronic absenteeism, California has encouraged kids to come to school when mildly sick and said that students who test positive for coronavirus but are asymptomatic can attend school. Los Angeles and San Diego's school systems, among others, have adopted that policy.

But the majority of big-city districts around the country still have asked parents to isolate children for at least five days before returning to school. Some, including Boston and Atlanta, have required students to mask for another five days and report positive COVID-19 test results to the school.

Some school leaders suggest the CDC's previous five-day isolation requirement was already only loosely followed.

Official policy in Burlington, Massachusetts, has been to have students stay home for five days if they test positive. But Superintendent Eric Conti said the real policy, in effect, is: "It's a virus. Deal with it."

That's because COVID is managed at home, using the honor system.

"Without school-based testing, no one can enforce a five-day COVID policy," he said via text message.

Ridley School District in the Philadelphia suburbs was already using a policy similar to the new CDC guidelines, said Superintendent Lee Ann Wentzel. Students who test positive for COVID must be fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours before returning to school. When they come back, they must mask for five days. Wentzel said the district is now considering dropping the masking requirement because of the new CDC guidance.

A school or day care's specific guidelines are consequential for working parents who must miss work if their child can't go to school or child care. In October 2023, during simultaneous surges of COVID, respiratory syncytial virus and influenza, 104,000 adults reported missing work because of child care issues, the highest number in at least a decade. That number has fallen: Last month, child care problems meant 41,000 adults missed work, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Melissa Colagrosso's child care center in West Virginia dropped special guidelines for COVID about a year ago, she said. Now, they're the same as other illnesses: A child must be free of severe symptoms such as fever for at least 24 hours before returning to the center.

"We certainly are treating COVID just like we would treat flu or hand, foot and mouth" disease, said Colagrosso, CEO of A Place To Grow Children's Center in Oak Hill.

As for kids without symptoms who test positive for COVID? Most parents have stopped testing kids unless they have symptoms, Colagrasso said, so it's a quandary she has not encountered.

Still, some parents worry the relaxed rules put their communities at greater risk. Evelyn Alemn leads a group of Latino and Indigenous immigrant parents in Los Angeles County. The parents she represents, many of whom suffer from chronic illnesses and lack of access to health care, panicked when California did away with isolation requirements in January.

"I don't think they're considering what the impact will be for our families," she said of California officials. "It feels like they don't care that we're almost expendable."

Other impacts of the pandemic linger, too, even as restrictions are lifted. In Ridley, the Philadelphia-area district, more students are reclusive and struggle to interact in-person with peers, said Wentzel, the superintendent. Interest in school dances has plummeted.

"Emotionally," Wentzel said, "they're having trouble."

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Balingit reported from Washington.

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The Associated Press' education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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The CDC has relaxed COVID guidelines. Will schools and day cares follow suit? - 1150AM/101.7FM WDEL

(CNN) People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Friday. The change ends a strategy from earlier in the pandemic that experts said has been important to controlling the spread of the infection.

The agency says its updating its recommendations for Covid-19 to bring them in line with its advice for other kinds of respiratory infections, including influenza and RSV. Offering a single set of unified guidance will make people more likely to follow it, agency experts said in a news briefing on Friday.

Namely, the CDC now says people who have Covid-19 should stay home until theyve been fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours or their symptoms have been improving for 24 hours.

After that, its fine to resume regular activities, agency experts say. But they recommend that people take additional precautions for the next five days including improving ventilation, masking and limiting close contact with others to lower the risk of spreading the virus.

These enhanced precautions are particularly important for people who are around vulnerable individuals, such as those who are elderly or have immune function thats been blunted by medication or an illness, like cancer.

CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said the agency is changing its guidance because most of the US population has some immunity against Covid and, as a result, the country is no longer seeing large waves of infections, hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.Instead, these have turned into smaller, more predictable bumps in transmission in the summer and winter as the nation reaches a kind of steady state with the virus.

And importantly, the agency says, despite these wavelets of illness, severe outcomes like hospitalizations and deaths have been dropping since 2020 and 2021.

In 2021, at their peak, there were 2.5 million hospitalizations for Covid-19, and in 2023, that number dropped 60% to 900,000 hospitalizations.

The decrease in deaths has been even bigger. In 2021, there were 450,000 deaths from Covid-19; in 2023, that number declined 83% to about 75,000 deaths.

Covid has dropped from the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020 and 2021 to the 10th leading cause of death in preliminary data from 2023, the CDC noted.

Thats still a far higher toll than the nation typically sees from the flu.In the 2022-23 season, which the CDC said was similar to some pre-pandemic flu seasons, the agency estimates that there were 360,000 flu-related hospitalizations and 21,000 deaths.

Todays announcement reflects the progress weve made in protecting against severe illness from COVID, Cohen said in a news briefing on Friday. Were in a different situation, but we must use the tools that work to protect against respiratory virus. Thats why our updated guidance emphasizes some core prevention actions to protect against severe illness, Cohen said, emphasizing that first and foremost, people need to stay up-to-date on their vaccines.

She said she anticipated than an updated Covid-19 vaccine would be available in the fall, and that people should make plans now to get it. Earlier this week, the CDC recommended people age 65 and older get another shot of the current Covid-19 vaccine before the fall.

Cohen noted its also important to stay home when youre sick, seek testing, and get treatment to lower the chance of severe illness.

The announcement doesnt mean all viruses act the same or have the same impact, Cohen noted.Instead, she said that having a set of uniform recommendations to limit the spread of respiratory infections makes them easier to follow and more likely to be adopted. Symptom-based recommendations also mean people dont need to test for infection, something many people already dont do.

In a recent CDC survey, less than half of people said they would use an at-home test for Covid If they had new cough or cold symptoms. And this is one of the main reasons that were targeting this guidance to respiratory viruses and illnesses as a group, said Dr. Brendan Jackson, who leads respiratory virus response at CDCsNational Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

The CDC says its updated guidance will include specific considerations for people who are at higher risk from respiratory illnesses, such as adults over 65, those who are immunocompromised, people with disabilities or those who are pregnant or have recently been pregnant.

The agency also says the new guidance applies only to community settings. Theres no change in recommendations to prevent the spread of Covid in clinics, hospitals and other health care settings.

The new guidance only applies to common respiratory infections, the CDC said. It shouldnt take the place of specific guidance for pathogens that require special containment measures, such as the measles.

Asked whether the change in guidelines might lead to more people being sick at work, particularly if they dont have paid leave, Cohen said she hoped that employers would continue to allow and encourage employees to stay home when they are ill.

We think that options for remote work and paid leave opportunities are an important component of this, Cohen said. She also said shed like to see more employers offering Covid vaccines alongside flu shots in their at-work clinics.

The bottom line is that when people follow these actionable recommendations to avoid getting sick, and to protect themselves and others if they do get sick, it will help limit the spread of respiratory viruses, and that will mean fewer people who experience severe illness, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in the news release. That includes taking enhanced precautions that can help protect people who are at higher risk for getting seriously ill.

Daskalakis said that if symptoms rebound after resuming normal activities, they should start the precautions over.

So if people start to feel ill again, they go back to square one, which is, stay home until you feel better for 24 hours, or your fever has resolved if you have one, then add strategies, enhanced strategies, for five additional days so that you reduce the risk of transmission, Daskalakis said.

Its reasonable to want to treat Covid-19 like other respiratory viruses, said Dr. Ellie Murray, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Boston Universitys School of Public Health, but you cant just discard the science.

Its not good science. Its not good public health. It doesnt provide people with accurate information, she said.

Murray notes that weve learned a lot about how respiratory diseases spread and how best to control them during the pandemic. But instead of applying those lessons to help protect people from other infections like the flu, she says, this rolling back of precautions is sending a harmful message.

Its undermining the whole rest of the public health system, she said. Because what people are hearing is, Actually, diseases arent as bad as wed said they were, and we dont actually need to do anything. Its not actually that bad if some people die.

While some public health experts have argued that its time to end Covid exceptionalism treating Covid-19 differently than other respiratory infections others believe the move is wrongheaded.

I completely disagree with the idea there is no Covid exceptionalism, Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute said in an email to CNN. The overwhelmingly abundant evidence for this virus over the past 4 years tells us that it is a far more dangerous pathogen than flu, which lacks seasonality, is still evolving, has induced Long Covid in tens of millions of throughout the worlds,and cannot be FLU-ified.

The CDC also noted that states and countries that have already shortened recommended isolation periods have not seen increased hospitalizations or deaths from Covid-19.

The five-day isolation period has had critics on all sides.

It was seen as onerous by employers in industries struggling with worker shortages, like health care and hospitality.Some parents also considered it unnecessarily disruptive to school and child care.

At the same time, people at higher risk of severe infection viewed the five-day guideline as too short, pointing out that people often continue to test positive on rapid tests long after that and are probably still contagious while they do.To them, the guideline has been inadequate and unscientific.

I think this is, you know, an effort to try to create guidance for the public that is easy to follow. And that doesnt require a tremendous amount of thinking or referencing. And also at the same time, an effort to try to get to language that isnt polarizing, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Freeman acknowledged that dropping terms like quarantine and isolation for long-time public health people, it doesnt feel that great. But theres also a recognition of the time that were in, and wed rather have people understand what to do to easily address their illness. You know, rather than fight with them about it.

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CDC drops 5-day isolation guidance for Covid-19 - KOMU 8

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is sunsetting its advice that people sick with Covid-19 isolate themselves for five days. The agency published new guidance Friday for Covid and other respiratory illnesses, suggesting people who are sick should stay at home until they are fever-free for 24 hours and their symptoms have been improving for the same period of time.

The new guidance recommends that in the five days that follow, recovering people should take measures such as masking and keeping a physical distance from others to try to reduce the risk that they will spread their illness.

Our goal here is to continue to protect those at risk from severe illness while also reassuring folks that these recommendations are simple, clear, easy to understand, and can be followed, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said during a media briefing outlining the new guidance.

We are in a different place, both in the level of protection people have against these illnesses and the tools we have available.

The guidance is for individuals. It does not change the CDCs advice to health care facilities or nursing homes about how to reduce the risk of disease transmission within their operations.

The public acknowledgement of the new policy came two weeks after the Washington Post revealed that the CDC was about to drop its advice that people with Covid isolate for five days. The new approach has drawn criticism from people who feel that the guidance leaves people who are at highest risk from Covid infection in an even more vulnerable situation.

The proposal would make workplaces and public spaces even more unsafe for everyone, particularly for people who are high-risk for Covid complications, Sam Friedman, a research professor of population health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said in a press release issued by a group called the Peoples CDC. The group is a coalition of health care professionals and researchers who have repeatedly pressed for more aggressive policies to limit Covid transmission.

But Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesotas Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy, said the new guidance makes sense. People with Covid are infectious before they develop symptoms, and some infected people dont experience symptoms but can transmit the virus. Given those particulars, Covid cannot be contained through testing and isolation, Osterholm said, suggesting more effort should be focused on persuading people who are at high risk of severe disease to update their immunity by getting a Covid shot when they are available.

In outlining the new guidance, CDC officials noted that while the toll of Covid infections remains higher than that of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and other respiratory pathogens, the impact of Covid is drawing closer to those other viruses. Covid hospitalizations this winter are down 75% from the rate seen in January 2022, and Covid deaths have declined by 90% from that time.

Brendan Jackson, the CDCs longtime Covid response manager, noted that where Covid was the third leading cause of death in the United States in 2021, its position on that list fell to the 10th spot in 2023. Covid-19 is still an important public health threat, but it is not the emergency that it once was, he said.

While the new guidance unifies the CDCs advice on what to do when one is infected with a respiratory illness, the 25-page document highlights one important exclusion: measles. It is a respiratory pathogen; measles spreads when a susceptible person breathes in viruses coughed or breathed out by infected individuals. But containment of the highly infectious illness requires special measures, the CDC noted.

Staying home when sick is advice that is easier for some people to follow then others. Not all employers offer paid sick leave. Cohen acknowledged that fact and said the CDC guidance encourages organizations to make it easier for their workers to take care of themselves and reduce the risk they will infect other people while ill. We recognize that thats going to require organizations to consider policies such as working from home or paid sick leave, she said.

In addition to adjusting its recommendations on how long infected people should isolate, the CDC guidance stresses ways to try to protect against becoming infected with Covid, flu, RSV, and other respiratory bugs.

Keeping up to date with vaccinations is critical, Cohen said, noting that over 95% of people hospitalized for Covid this winter had not received the latest Covid booster. The guidance also stresses the utility of handwashing, cleaning high-touch surfaces, and trying to improve indoor air quality.

The guidance also recommends testing when one is sick, because there are drugs for Covid and flu that can shorten the course of illness and lower the risk an individual will go on to develop severe disease. CDC survey data show that fewer than 50% of people who are sick with respiratory symptoms are testing themselves for Covid at this point. Demetre Daskalakis, director of CDCs National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said health officials hope that people will find the new guidance easier to follow and will be more willing to test themselves.

Jackson noted that jurisdictions that have already moved to a less stringent Covid isolation policy California and Oregon among them have not seen a rise in emergency room visits for Covid infections.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the year in which Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S.

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Covid isolation guidance eased by the CDC - STAT